The House of Wayne
by Mark-Owen
Summary: Sixteen years after the tragedy that took place on Sedna and the ensuing war on Earth, the peace has come back in the Universe. Except, there are still some secrets that have been kept from a promising young man. (Sequel to Stolen Future & Awakening)


_**AN: A little word first before reading this fic (the link is in my profile description).**_

 **The House of Wayne**

 _ **April 2023**_

* * *

Oliver rushed down the stairs towards the incessant ringing that echoed throughout the house. He ran by the bathroom where joyous cries of children reverberated, often disturbed by the frustrated voice of their mother.

"Oliver! The phone!"

"I heard, I heard!" he replied, continuing his course towards the offending object in the hall which he reached right before the last series of ringings. "Queen mansion." he said into the receiver.

"Oliver?" An old voice spoke back, full of strangled sobs and tremors. "I saw him!"

His breath caught in his throat. "Alfred?"

"I saw him!" The man insisted. "I was at this café in Florence, he had his back to me. He was siting there with a woman and children running around him, I-"

"Alfred..." Oliver repeated as he felt his chest constricting. He shook his head. "He's gone, Alfred, you have to accept that."

"He can't be dead! He must have found a solution, he-"

"Bruce's not coming back." Oliver cut him off with a firmer voice. "I'm sorry."

Alfred didn't answer right away, the faint sounds of labored breathing filtered through the phone, betraying the old man's anguish. "It's been so long already."

"I know." Oliver's voice broke. He looked down at the ground, gently shaking his head as if it could prevent the tears from escaping his eyes. "We'll never forget him... I didn't. You can't live like this, Alfred."

"Why did he do it?" Alfred whispered through a trembling voice.

Oliver closed his eyes. "I think we both know."

A long, drawn out sigh was his immediate answer. "It's because of her, isn't it?"

He nodded before talking. "Yes." A long silence ensued. "Alfred?"

"And the child? What are we gonna do about him?"

"He..."

"How old is he?"

"Sixteen."

"Don't you think it's time we told him?"

Oliver pursed his lips.

"Perhaps I should call the Kents."

"No!" he immediately answered. "No, we'll do it. We'll get him to Gotham so he can learn the truth."

"Do it... please do it."

"I think you're right. It's time."

"Thank you, Oliver."

"We'll be there this weekend." he said. "Is that alright with you?"

"Anytime, Oliver." the old butler replied. "It's a moment I've been waiting for three years."

Oliver hesitated. "Goodbye, Alfred."

"Goodbye, Master Queen." the man replied. "And see you in two days."

The call ended and the dial-tone was pinging in his ear but Oliver remained immobile for a long moment. Before his eyes, a young dark-haired boy was happily running through the fields of the Kent farm, unaware of the secrets hiding in his shadow.

"Ollie?"

He blinked, catching sight of Chloe standing by the doorway, a frown on her face as she sported damp patches on her clothes. She approached him slowly to wrap her arms around him and rest her face against his shoulder.

"You heard us, huh?" He felt her nod against him. "Do you think we've waited too long?"

"I don't know," she replied. "But I'm certain we can't wait any longer anymore. He has to know."

"You're right."

Chloe looked up and kissed his cheek. "I'll give Hal and Tess a call. See if they can take care of the boys for a couple of days."

"Good idea." Oliver answered. "I'll make sure they finish their baths while you do that."

"Oh please yes!" she exclaimed, relieved to let him handle the two little bubbles of energy they had masquerading as children. "They've been insufferable today."

A smile pulled at his lips. "So I see." he tugged at her wet top. "Where's you legendary patience gone, Sidekick?"

She stuck out her tongue at him. "We'll see you talk of patience after you spend ten minutes with these brats of yours."

* * *

The infamous Gotham weather was at it again. The three of them stood under one large umbrella shielding them from the constant stream of rain that fell from the dark clouded skies. No matter where she looked, Chloe couldn't even see one patch of blue sky.

The gray fillings of the clouds seemed to stain the world around them magnified the morose atmosphere. Add to that the thunder and the imposing figure of the Wayne Manor surrounded by acres of forest on the sole hill of the city and she understood how any stranger would want to leave the place as soon as they could.

She herself had always been more nervous that usual in Gotham and she knew Oliver felt the same way. Behind his stoic façade, he was longing for the sun of Star City even though he was used to visiting the east coast often. It was, however, the first time for the teenager they accompanied.

The young man kept shifting from foot to foot and tapping his hand against his leg. No one could fault him. After all, even if Gotham wasn't as sinister a place as it was, he had another reason to be anxious. He hadn't said much since they left the Kent farm and explained to him the reason of their journey. Chloe could only imagine was what going on in his mind.

She caught his shaking hand after a moment, earning herself a deer-in-the-headlights look. She smiled and gave him a gentle squeeze, hoping to have him relax, which he did. But not for long, unfortunately.

A second later, the large wooden door of the Manor's entrance squeaked and slid open in a slow fashion.

Behind it, an aging, frail man emerged from the darkness. His eyes traveled over the faces of Chloe and Oliver before settling on the third person of the group and he froze.

"Hi, Alfred." Oliver started, pulling him out of his stupor.

"Mr. and Mrs. Queen," Alfred bowed, inviting them inside. "And you must be, Christopher." he said, staring at the young man.

Christopher Kent looked as unsure as he felt. "Uh, yeah, that would be me. Hello, sir." he extended his hand before realizing neither Oliver nor Chloe had shaken the man's hand as they came inside. He blushed.

Chloe smirked and Chris would have felt stupid had Alfred not been just as stressed as he was. The old man didn't seem to pick up on his embarrassment and promptly shook his hand. "Welcome to Gotham." he smiled. "Do you know why you've been brought here?"

"Chloe and Ollie told me you knew my parents." Chris wasn't sure whether it was a question or a statement.

"Your father," Alfred corrected him. "I never had the chance to meet your mother, my child."

He seemed to hesitate for an instant before turning towards the blond couple who watched the two of them with interest. "Can I tell him myself? If you don't mind of course."

"It's okay, we won't bother him that way." Oliver agreed as Chloe went up to Chris and rubbed his arms up and down.

"Alfred's a good man, he's known your father for a very long time." she gave him a warm smile. "You can ask him anything you want."

The teenager nodded but remained silent.

Alfred took a step forward and bent to Chloe and Oliver as if to tell them a secret. "We'll meet downstairs when we're done." As they acquiesced, the butler made a gentle motion towards Chris. "Come with me, my dear, we have much to talk about."

Watching the both of them disappear in the depths of the countless aisles of the manor, Chloe felt Oliver's hand slip into hers. She looked up at her husband, uncertain.

"He'll be alright," Oliver said, a faint smile on his lips.

* * *

Christopher had once considered the Queen mansion as huge but he felt the need to reevaluate his definition of the word. In comparison, the Wayne manor was overwhelmingly gigantic. He was literally afraid of losing himself in the bewildering amount of living rooms, libraries, restrooms, bedrooms and corridors.

He wasn't used to such grandeur. He was a simple farm-boy raised in a modest yet cozy home in the middle of Kansas. To him, this world was entirely foreign. He was aware that Chloe and Oliver were billionaires but he'd never seen them as part of the ultra-rich social groups. Albeit, he never visited them often, he always thought he knew them pretty well.

To know that his own biological father lived in such opulence was a fact he hadn't quite wrapped his head around yet.

Alfred seemed to know his way through the house with perfection and Chris wondered how long the old man had been living there and if he'd ever felt as lost as he when he first set foot in the manor. At least _he_ had super-abilities to get him out of here if, in any case, he found himself stranded.

The old valet stole a subtle glance at Christopher just as they arrived in front of an unassuming door.

"I hope you will forgive me for not taking the time to bring you on a tour of the mansion, Master Kent." Alfred looked back at him, as he gripped at the handle. "I felt you would prefer it if we came to the heart of the matter."

Chris chewed on the inside of his cheek. He could only agree. "Yeah that'd be great, I think."

Alfred bent over and pushed the door open. "After you my young master."

Startled, Chris hesitated for a moment and, after seeing that Alfred wouldn't budge, he took the first step inside. It was a fairly large bedroom decorated in the ancient style that was plastered all over the house. The bookshelves on the wall gave the room a warmer look that he had seen in any other place of the house yet.

The simple queen-sized bed was well-fitted in front of the sole window as it faced a quite minimalistic desk. Chris was actually surprised. He had expected a bigger and less personal room and, as his eyes fell on the large piano sitting by the shelves, he wondered what they were doing here.

"This was your father's bedroom." Alfred's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "He never spent much time in it to be quite honest." The teenager sent him a questioning look which prompted a chuckle out of him. "You do not talk much, my child. Perhaps, you're more partial to music." he pointed at the large instrument in the room.

"I'm not much of a musician." Chris frowned.

"Neither was your father."

"Then why is there..."

Alfred's lips twisted in a grin and he walked around the young man to lift the cover off the piano's keyboard. His thin finger unfolded to push on a couple of keys, producing a simple tune that puzzled Chris.

He took an instinctive step back when something clacked aloud behind the bookshelves and looked on as Alfred pulled one of them to the side, revealing a hidden door.

 _Wow. What the heck is that?_

He did a double take when the door slid to the side and gave way to an elevator cab. Alfred's face gave nothing away as he took his place in the car and gave him a look.

"Are you coming, Christopher?"

He rubbed his eyes and looked again. "What is this?"

"The key to understanding Bruce Wayne."

The man could do cryptic just well. Chris knew he must have looked stupid staring at him, aghast for a long moment before he realized he wouldn't get an answer out of the butler here. He decided to go along and settled alongside Alfred inside the lift.

Once the doors slid back, Chris tried to glance at him only to see his expression hadn't changed. The elevator then moved and Chris felt his stomach fall. _We're going downwards_ , he realized. He had thought they had been on the lowest floor of the manor earlier, clearly he'd been wrong.

He didn't know what was happening and he wasn't quite sure he liked it. All of this secrecy, the luxury, enigmatic butlers and what-nots. Those were things he wasn't used to.

 _I miss Kansas._

"Where are we going?"

"Patience, my child, patience."

That wasn't the answer he was looking for. Alfred seemed to have the best poker face he'd ever seen.

He was an old man and yet he still carried himself in a way that oozed composure and wiseness. He was acting as if all of this was a daily occurrence for him.

 _Well, it probably is_. Chris thought over that until a soft ping echoed in the cabin and the doors slid back open.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that now offered itself to him. This wasn't at all the conventional room he was expecting. His eyes took in the huge space that had been carved through the dark rock to accommodate a large metallic platform in the center of the place. Behind it, waterfalls were obscuring the view but his attention was quickly caught by the large computer banking sat against another wall and the many life-sized knick-knacks strewn all over the place.

A hand landed on Christopher's back and gently pushed him out of the lift.

"Now this is where your father spent most of his time." Alfred said, presenting the whole cave to him.

Chris wasn't sure he'd picked his jaw up from the ground yet as his eyes still tried to take in every detail. The noise of the waterfall was starting to muffle his ears and add to his confusion. He pulled away from Alfred and looked around in awe.

The computer was something one would expect to jump out of a science-fiction novel. It looked to be a custom made machine with a big keyboard that took up the space of a normal desk and a screen the size of a window planted into the wall.

At the center of the cave, the platform looked to be some kind of bridge large enough to accommodate a truck. It had paths leading to different places of the cave and Chris saw in the background what looked like a museum of some sort.

However, the big surprise was still to come. He froze entirely when he took notice of the suits standing in a corner, hanging on mannequins. They were of several sizes and colors but each of them held the same patterns. With the tall pointy ears of the helmets to the chest-plates and the dark capes, there was no mistaking.

Chris blinked. "I'm in the Batcave."

"That is correct," Alfred came up behind him. "Bruce Wayne was a mere cover identity for your father's real activities. He had dedicated his life to the Batman after his return. To the point that it consumed him."

The deep sadness in Alfred's word intrigued him. He couldn't help but stare at the old man's wistful face and wonder what the bond between him and Bruce Wayne was. Yet, there were other, more pressing questions in his mind.

"His return?"

Alfred smiled and was about to reply when a third voice chimed in.

"Have you ever wondered where your abilities come from?"

Startled, Chris turned to fall face-to-face with a tall statuesque brunette woman staring down at him. "My... my abilities?" he sputtered.

She laughed. "We know everything about you, Mahni-boy. There's no need to try to hide from us."

Spooked, Chris took a step back and eyed the stranger through thinned eyes. "Who are you?"

Alfred put a hand on her shoulder. "This is Diana, she was the confidante of your father."

"You do look a lot like him, Mahni-boy." Diana smiled. "And you have your mother's eyes."

"Stop calling me that." Chris exclaimed, irritated. He could handle Alfred but this woman's constant stare made him nervous. She had cool, gray eyes that seemed to follow him everywhere.

"Excuse me?" she frowned.

 _Great, now I've pissed her off_. "Manny-boy," he repeated. "Why do you keep calling me that?"

Her eyes widened and suddenly, she had an explosive fit of laughter. Chris watched her in surprise and queried to Alfred who seemed content enough to smile at him and remain silent.

"Why are you laughing?" _Now_ he _was getting pissed off._

"I'm sorry," she finally said when her laughter died down. She had a hand on her chest as if to calm herself. "It's funny, really. I've said it so much around you when you were still a baby it feels unreal you find it alien even after all these years."

 _Did she just say..._ "Wait... You knew me when I was still a baby?" He looked her up and down. "How old are you?"

"Oh don't ask, child." Alfred intervened. "She would never say it. She might actually be older than me."

Chris glanced between the two of them, his eyebrows raised. Diana looked to be thirty years old at most, how could she be older than the aging butler? "I don't understand."

"It's alright, it was the same for all of us at the beginning." Alfred said.

"Us?"

The computer pinged. "Excuse me."

He and Diana watched Alfred head towards the machine and bring it to life by pressing a key on the desk. ASCII code filled the screen as if the computer had a life of its own and a loud voice was expelled from the speakers.

"Blake's coming back," it said. "He's run into trouble, again."

Alfred sighed. "I'll be preparing the aid kit. Thank you, Victor." He turned towards them. "Diana? Do you mind taking Christopher on a tour while I tend to Mr. Blake?"

"It'll be my pleasure, Alfred." she returned, her arm wrapping around the teenager's shoulders.

"I hope it won't inconvenience you if I disappear for ten minutes," the butler said, wringing his hands. "This is something I cannot ignore. I hope you understand."

Chris shifted from foot to foot. To be quite honest, he didn't really know how to handle Diana. She destabilized him and the aura of mystery around her only added to his mixed feelings. He wasn't afraid of her, his abilities would allow him to overpower her if he wished to but there was a part of him that did fear her. His mind.

What kind of secrets could she reveal to him? Was he even willing to hear about them? It was only after a long debate within himself that Christopher took a decision and finally nodded to the relief of the old man.

"Thank you," he said. "I won't be long." He disappeared the way they came: through the elevator.

Chris turned to Diana only to see she was staring at him with an adoring expression he wasn't ready to see on her face. He remained immobile when her hand went up to stroke his face. The flinch he had been expecting wasn't coming and what he'd first thought of an amorous move turned out to convey a kind of tenderness that only permeated in the bonds between a mother and her child.

"You must have a lot of questions, I imagine." she whispered. "And I will answer all of them if I can but first, I do have one for you."

He waited until his patience ran out. "Yes?"

A smile full of mischief took over her face. "Can you fly?"

"What?"

She laughed and took his hand. Chris blinked when he saw her feet leave the ground as she started to gain altitude, dragging him with her. "Come on!" she teased. "Don't tell me you're afraid!"

He growled and propelled himself upwards, overtaking her towards the ceiling of the cave. Diana seemed proud when they rejoined and hovered in silence in the cave. She looked over to the falling waters and made a motion with her head.

"Follow me outside, I've got to show you something."

"Wait," he caught her forearm. "Outside? Shouldn't we take the lift?" Short of punching a hole through the rock, he wasn't sure how they could leave the place by the airs.

A chuckle escaped her. "Oh Mahni-boy," she shook her head. "You don't know even half of the place like I do." She then made a leap towards the waters and disappeared through them under his incredulous eyes.

"Diana!" Chris decided to go after her and was expecting to hit a layer of rocks behind the waters only to end up hovering above the clearing of a forest in open-skies. "Wow."

Her laugh caught his attention. She was waiting for him a few yards above. He couldn't quite contain a smile when he met with her. "Enjoying yourself?"

"I never really had the opportunity to fly much back at the farm." he admitted sheepishly.

"The wide open fields of Smallville aren't really adapted to hide such a secret." she agreed.

His eyes widened. "You know where I live?"

"Haven't I already said I know everything about you?"

"But-"

"Shhh!" she put a finger against her lips and pointed down at the ground.

He followed her gesture and heard the rumblings of an engine rushing through the forest beneath their feet. Chris caught a few glimpses of the vehicle through the empty patches between some trees but couldn't quite get the full picture until it reached the clearing.

It looked more like a tank than a car. The black paint all over its bodywork helped to hide it through the night and the fact that it carried no lights only helped with that. The vehicle didn't stop at the clearing like Chris expected it to do. Instead, it continued its course straight forward and looked about to meet head-on with the ravine between the water-falls and the forest. However, the vehicle jumped over the abyss and disappeared through the waters which he knew led to the cave.

"That was the Batman."

He turned to Diana, his brows furrowed. "I thought-"

"Yes I know." she said. "The man inside the batmobile is named John Blake. He's the one who took up the mantle of the Dark Knight after your dad... perished."

"The same Blake the computer was talking about? And what happened to my father? Why did he die? How?"

"It wasn't a computer that warned Alfred." Diana said. "It was Victor Stone. He used to be human. Well... part-human, he was actually a cyborg but his body was destroyed when we were on a planet called Sedna. What you saw was his digitized conscience that is now living in the Internet's infrastructure."

Chris's head was spinning and he felt himself starting to drop. Her hands clasped his shoulders, startling him back to reality. "Okay, okay..." he shook his head. "You might need to repeat what you've said... just slower. When were _we_ on another planet?"

Her eyes glassed over. "Christopher..." she said, her tone sad. "Where do you think your abilities come from?" Those words again. Before he could reply she caught his hand. "Come on, it's about time you met your parents."

* * *

 _Bruce, Faora, the war against Zod, the help of the Green Lanterns, the victory against Darkseid..._

 _The Earth._

 _Sedna._

These thoughts kept bouncing around in his mind as they flew back to the cave. Diana's once cold eyes were glistening as they touched ground again. The sight of their graves in the manor's back garden and the memories she related had taken its toll on her. She couldn't keep up her stoic attitude when she came to tell him the conditions of his birth in a world at war.

Her tears kept running down her cheeks as she went on about Bruce and the pain he carried with him until the day he died. A broken man, but a hero nonetheless.

In stark contrast, Christopher couldn't cry. The history of his family was filled with tragedies, each one more gut-wrenching than the last and yet, even after bottling up so much pain, he couldn't bring himself to release it.

Chris wasn't feeling very well when they got back from the personal cemetery of the Wayne family. He felt uneasy on his legs and the world around him spun ever-so-slightly, enough to mess with his balance.

He grit his teeth when he noticed Alfred coming towards them. After shaking his head long enough to regain his spirits, he decided to work through his pain and hide it.

"Where's Blake?" he asked, his voice a little rough.

"Oh he's gone upstairs," Alfred glanced at the Batmobile resting on the platform. "It has been a long two days for him."

The butler didn't look much more worried about Blake. Chris concluded the second Batman was used to staying out working against Gotham's criminals for several days at a time.

"You have seen their tombs, haven't you?"

Diana patted Chris' back. "He needed to know where they were resting."

"Of course, of course." Alfred agreed. "Can I borrow him from you, my dear? I have one last thing to show him."

"I was just about to leave," she replied quietly before turning to Chris, her voice wavering. "If you ever need to talk... you know where to find me."

Chris felt his lip quivering and gripped her into a hug. She froze for an instant before returning his fierce grip. "Thank you," he whispered, blinking his tears away.

"I'm here for you, Mahni-boy. Always." she stroke his cheek after they broke their embrace. "Goodbye."

"Bye," he returned, watching her fly away into the waters.

Alfred appeared to his side, an electric torch in his hands. "It takes a lot to pierce through her armor," he said. "Your parents were her greatest friends."

Chris swallowed the lump in his throat, unable to say a word.

"Now," Alfred turned to him. "Are you ready for a walk, my boy?"

He let himself be led towards the darkest and longest tunnel of the cave. Alfred was walking ahead, lighting the way and warning him of the potholes or swarms of bats on their path. They'd been walking for at least fifteen minutes when Chris trusted his voice enough to talk.

"Where are we going?"

"Oh we're almost there," Alfred sent him a small smile. "I hope you will forgive me for bringing you through this strange place, it wasn't my decision actually. It was your paternal's."

Chris stopped. "Bruce?"

Alfred kept going. "It was his paranoid's side that took this decision I suppose. He wanted to make sure this part of the cave wasn't found, just in case." His footsteps echoed through the tunnel even after he disappeared from Chris' view.

"Well, Christopher, aren't you coming?"

The teenager was shaken back to reality by his words and supersped to Alfred's side, stopping short of a few feet in front of an imposing steel door encrusted into the rock.

"In here," The butler said, "Lays a message from your father." He deposited a key into Chris' palm and covered it with both of his hands. "Take all the time you need, my child. We will be waiting for you when you return."

After Alfred retreated to the main room, Chris stood unmoving in front of the door for a long moment. He couldn't help wondering what he'd find behind this heavy piece of metal. A message from his father, Alfred had said. How could it be possible to be so eager and yet so afraid at the same time?

He took a deep, calming breath and, with shaking hands, slipped the key into the lock. The door hissed as it unfurled slowly. Despite the darkness, Chris saw a desk waiting for him in a small, confined room.

The lights went on as soon as he set foot inside. It was a warm glow coming from the sole light hanging by the ceiling. Chris found time slowed down as he approached the desk. It felt like he needed to produce an herculean effort to even make a step. The short distance between the door and the desk felt like an unending road to him.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, he found himself seating at the desk and peering down at an envelope on which two words were handwritten.

 _To Christopher._

"Dad," he whispered.

Inside the envelope was one piece of paper filled with text. He had to start over his reading several times as his eyes blurred after the first couple of lines. His hand gripped the wooden edge of the desk almost hard enough to break it before he tried again.

 _July the 20_ _th_ _, 2020._

 _Christopher,_

 _I'm writing this letter to you today because I fear I might not come back from this fight. Gotham City has been taken hostage by a terrorist named Bane. He has beaten me once already and later today, I will have to face him again._

 _If you read this letter now, it means I have failed to respect the promise I made to you when you were still an infant. Know that I haven't died willingly. I fought to stay alive in hope to finally see you again after all this time._

 _Please, forgive me._

 _I abandoned you shortly after your birth and that fact has always weighed on me. I'm ashamed of myself. My pain has made me selfish and unfortunately, it's too late for me to fix my mistakes. Know that despite all of this, I always have watched over you._

 _The Kents are a good couple. I chose them for you because Chloe recommended them to me. They'd raised her after her parents' passing and I trust her judgment. They would love you like you were their own son and that is all I ever wanted for you._

 _This isn't the only thing I did. Do you remember when you were ten and got stuck in an old factory filled with green meteorites? These are called kryptonite and they're dangerous for your biology. You were rushed to a specialized hospital and the surgeon used a special scalpel I made myself out of blue kryptonite. The kind that only strips you of your abilities temporarily._

 _It was the only thing that could pierce your skin and allow them to remove the green poison out of your body._

 _The medical staff that tended to you was sworn to secrecy after the operation. You do not have to worry about them. I made sure they could be trusted._

 _I was in constant contact with you even if you never knew it. I was there. It doesn't undo what I did, this is a given, but I want you to know I've always cared for you, no matter what._

 _Alfred and Diana might have told you about your origins but I will give you more. You will find with this letter a USB drive containing every bit of information about your mother, myself, the planet Sedna on which you were born as well as the coordinates of the last remaining survivor of Krypton: Kal-El, the Ultraman._

 _You are half-kryptonian, Christopher, you will need his knowledge in order to grow into this world. Your abilities come from your mother. She's had an unconventional life, at times becoming the ally of the dangerous Zod before turning her back on him. Never doubt my words when I say she was a good woman who realized the errors of her ways in time to find her redemption._

 _She was precious to me. Losing her made me do terrible things after my return to Earth and I regret them all. I loved her just as much as I love you. I just wish she had lived so we could have been a family._

 _Maybe then I could have been the father you deserved._

 _Be a good man, my son. I wish for you to be happy._

 _Goodbye, forever and ever._

 _You dad,_

 _Bruce Wayne._

 _PS: There is a portrait of your mother I painted myself. It's hanging against the wall under a red blanket right in front of you._

Chris's eyes burned as he looked up to the wide sheet hanging a few inches above his head. He went to grip the material, his chair falling over in the process. Fighting the sudden heaviness in his arms, Chris cried out as he pulled it off.

The cloth slipped down slowly, kicking up particles of dust in the air just as another light went on in the room, warming the oil painting standing proudly against the wall.

He burst into tears, the vice grip he had had over his emotions since the moment he set foot in Gotham was now blown away and it was through a blurred vision that he admired the image of a young, beautiful woman smiling down at him.

Bruce's talent was incommensurable. He felt like he was staring at a photograph. The color of her eyes, their almond-like shape, her nose... there was no doubt she was his mother. Chris was captivated by the sight of her tender smile.

He caught himself wondering what she must have been like. His heart was squeezed painfully when he remembered he would never have the chance to meet her. He would never take neither her, nor his father into his arms.

The simple thought broke him.

He sat down on the ground and wept, his head in his hands, alone.

* * *

It was early morning when Christopher emerged from the tunnel. The batmobile was still there, on the platform, its angular bodywork lit up by the glow of the day slipping through the waterfalls. Behind it, a small group was standing by the computer, their conversation calm and quiet as they cupped mugs of hot tea in their hands.

He must have looked like hell because at the first noise he made, their heads turned and they rushed towards him, soon engulfing the teenager in warm hugs which he returned.

"You're back!" Chloe exclaimed.

"How're you feeling, bud?"

"It's..." Chris hesitated. "I don't know."

A hand landed on his shoulder and he recognized Alfred's concerned face. "Maybe you should lie down."

"It must have been a lot to take," a fourth voice said. "He definitely should rest."

Chris saw the man besides Alfred, he was clad in a dark suit, the shape of a bat carved into his chest. He shook his head, chasing the tiredness away. "I'm fine."

"Chris!" Chloe said.

He sighed, closing his eyes. "Maybe you're right." A thought suddenly popped back into his mind and a faint panic seized him as he stared at the blond couple. "Do you guys know the Ultraman?"

Taken aback, Oliver smiled. "Why yes, he's a good friend of ours."

Chris was pacified, he could barely muster the strength to node and felt his legs weakening. A pair of arms slipped under his shoulders.

"You are going to lie down." Chloe said, it wasn't a statement. "You're exhausted."

"Come with me," Alfred proposed. "I will prepare you a bedroom. You need to gather your strengths back, my child."

The old butler was right. The revelations of the last day had made Chris realize he was destined to great things. A bright, colorful and heroic future was waiting for him and there was only one man who could teach him how to honor his parent's memories. Kal-El of Krypton, the last of his fellow men.

As he was being dragged upstairs, Christopher felt sleep coming over him and the image of a couple standing before him, hand in hand, filled his sight. They smiled and waved at him before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"Thank you..."

 **THE END**


End file.
